john boehner is on the verge of losing credibility with his caucus. he can't take a deal to his caucus that will pass without the help of nancy pelosi, which will pull the entire deal to the left. so what they have to do is they have to go over the cliff. we're just talking about politics, we're not talking about finances here. they have to go over the cliff. that strengthens boehner's hands because now everybody is paying a hell of a lot more taxes and people are blaming the republicans, and now boehner can go to the caucus and maybe get 200 and a few votes and then with nancy pelosi pick off a few democrats and make some kind of deal. having said that, the best thing for the country is never to come to a deal because ed rendell is right. as a former governor, we don't operate with big deficits. you can't do that and we're in trouble in this country financially. the long term and in the short term, yes, we'll have a recession. it won't be a bad one but it will be one and nobody wants a recession. in the long term i think wall street goes crazy and yo